Kids Bible Devotional for July 18, 2024
Listen Here
Focus Verse
Ephesians 2:20 And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone. (KJV)
Jump Start
A little to the left. A little more. Now, just a tad to the right. Perfect.
Have you ever watched someone hang a picture on the wall? If you have, then you know how important it is to get it centered and leveled just right. If it’s like that with a picture, can you image how precise you have to be with a building? You’ve got to get the measurements and angles exact, so everything is perfectly aligned. Not many professional carpenters are just going to eyeball it when constructing a house or building. They’re going to pull out the old tape measure, square, and level quite a few times during the construction.
As Christians, we measure ourselves against the Lord Jesus Christ. We just can’t “wing it” in our relationship with the Lord. The question we should ask ourselves often is, “Am I becoming more like Jesus?”
Today's Devotion
Sam helped his dad unload the last boards of lumber from the trailer. “Whew! That’s a lot of wood. Now, we can get started on the shed, right, Dad?”
“Well, almost. I want to make sure I’m all squared up.” Sam’s dad took a tape measure from his carpenter’s belt and measured from the corner stakes.
“Okay, now we can get started,” he said.
Sam scratched his head. “Why did you measure from the opposite corners? I would have just measured the sides and called it good enough.”
“That’s an old carpenter’s trick. Measuring from the corners proves your structure’s is plumbed up.”
“Plumbed up?”
“It’s just a way of saying that you’re straight. That’s important because you don’t want to get halfway into building and realize you’re all crooked.”
Dad grabbed a box of nails from the back of the trailer. “In olden days, they used a cornerstone to true up a building. This was the first stone laid used to orient all of the other foundation stones.”
“Is that why the Bible calls Jesus the chief cornerstone?” Sam asked.
“Very perceptive, son. That’s exactly right. We align our life with Jesus. If we aren’t trued up to Jesus, we’re going to have a very flimsy spiritual life. And you don’t want that. Now, grab that hammer and let’s get to work.”
Wrap Up
There are a lot of experts out there who try to teach how to have a happy life. None of it works for very long if one’s life is not centered around Jesus Christ. Peace, love, and joy? Those are fruit of the Spirit. To have these things in abundance within our lives, we need Jesus. Jesus needs to be at the center of everything we do. We follow His example and make sure we keep our relationship with Him our top priority.
Is Jesus the center of your life?
Comments